1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for manufacturing(generating) carbon fibers by means of a thermal chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method using catalysts and a gas including carbon. Moreover, the present invention relates to methods for severally manufacturing an electron-emitting device and a light bulb, both using the carbon fibers as electron-emitting members, an electron source configured by using the electron-emitting devices, an image display apparatus such as a display configured by using the electron source, a secondary battery using the carbon fibers as cathodes, and the like. Furthermore, the present invention relates to a method for manufacturing an electronic device such as a circuit and a transistor using the carbon fibers.
2. Description of Related Art
There is a method for forming a plurality of carbon fibers in a desired region by means of the thermal CVD method performed successively after disposing a catalyst layer on a substrate. Moreover, there is a technique for using the carbon fibers manufactured by the thermal CVD method as electron-emitting members for an electron-emitting device, and further for an image-forming apparatus. Patent Documents 1–5 disclose electron-emitting devices using carbon fibers. Patent Documents 6–8 disclose methods for manufacturing carbon fibers. The thermal CVD method is a method for performing the excitation of source chemical species by heating them, and is generally inexpensive in comparison with a plasma CVD method and an optical CVD method.    Patent Document 1: European Patent Application Laid-Open No. 1,245,704    Patent Document 2: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2002-150925    Patent Document 3: U.S. Pat. No. 5,872,422    Patent Document 4: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2002-289086    Patent Document 5: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2001-229806    Patent Document 6: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2001-181842    Patent Document 7: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H11-11917    Patent Document 8: Japanese Patent Publication No. H2-46691